"IS ANYBODY PAYING ATTENTION?" The mindful view of an educated Buddhist blogger who uses critical thinking, evidence, facts, and investigation to come up with his opinions instead of fear based ideologies.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Hi, everyone! We have another story of a ignorant gun nut doing a mass shooting. We have another group of black people targeted and murdered in a terrorist type attack by said random ignorant gun nut that happened to be White.
NO Big Deal? . Then read this:

Dylann Storm Roof walked into a church in Charleston, South Carolina and killed nine people with a handgun. Immediately the rightwing media started spouting ignorant deflections from the truth, talking about how this was an attack on religion. Today I am going to debunk this argument using the facts known at this time.

1) Dylann is from Eastover, SC. The historically black church he terrorized was in Charleston, SC, at least 1 hr 40 min and at least 98.1 miles away.

2) If he just wanted to attack a church, there are at least 7 Christian churches in or at least near Eastover, SC., that would have been a lot closer without having to drive to where he started out at.

3) He had all the trappings of a racist in the South. a) He had a rebel flag license plate on his car. b) He reportedly made racist jokes frequently. c) He stated he was a racist and that this was racially motivated. d) when he walked into the church, he stated that, "They are raping our women and taking over our country." e) he reportedly told some of his friends on Facebook that he was attending meetings at a white supremacist Christian hate church. f) Last and not least, the DOJ started an investigation into the mass shooting as a "hate crime".

Remember when the Colorado theater shooter was said to be a member of the Tea Party? Everything I am telling you is part of the stories that made sense and came out through different news sources, including the police in the town of Shelby, NC. As usual, the news is always struggling to get the story out first, which can lead to inaccuracy but I will keep you informed as to updates. The last information I got was these last two notes.

"...UPDATE 11:42 am: Charleston police chief Gregory Mullen and the FBI have also confirmed Roof’s arrest. Roof was arrested during a traffic stop in Shelby, NC."

"...UPDATE 11:57 am: Roof was arrested after a citizen called police to report a suspicious vehicle, according to police. Roof was “cooperative” during his arrest."

Monday, June 15, 2015

This is the deal. Today I received this email from Bernie Sanders 2016 and I think it would be perfect to share if you haven't seen it. He talks about the main thing I and many others have complained about having to do with our president. He tried to do the mythological beast called bipartisan Republicans in Congress. They vote as a pack, travel as a pack, and pretty much repeat the same tired talking points as if they all went to a class entitled "Stupid Remarks 101" and never learned how to think past the class on how to obstruct progress.

I will let Bernie's email tell you the rest. Take Care,

Steven -

One of the biggest mistakes President Obama made once he was in office was, after mobilizing millions of Americans during his brilliant 2008 campaign, to basically tell those supporters, 'Thank you, I’m going to sit down with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and take it from here.’

I will not make that mistake.

What we’re building together as part of this campaign is not just about electing a president. No one person, not me or the best president you could imagine, can make the changes we need by him or herself.

What's necessary to make change happen is a mobilized grassroots movement. That’s especially true when a few wealthy billionaires and corporations have their sights set on buying our elections.

If we’re going to accomplish what we want for this country, it won’t happen by negotiating with Mitch McConnell — it will only happen when millions of Americans get out and make their voices heard.

We have a chance to do that today.

Last week, the House of Representatives stopped a bad trade deal that would have continued the approach that forces American workers to compete against workers in nations that have near non-existent minimum wages, where independent labor unions are banned, and where people are thrown in jail for expressing their political beliefs.

But make no mistake, Wall Street, corporate America and their representatives in Congress will try again to pass this bad trade deal … as soon as tomorrow.

The TPP follows in the footsteps of other unfettered free trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA that have been supported by corporate America and that cost America millions of decent-paying jobs.

Since 2001, nearly 60,000 manufacturing plants in this country have been shut down, and we have lost almost 5 million decent-paid manufacturing jobs. NAFTA alone led to the loss of almost three-quarters of a million jobs — the Permanent Normalized Trade Agreement with China cost America four times that number: almost 3 million jobs. These agreements are not the only reason why manufacturing in the United States has declined, but they are important factors.

The TPP would also give multinational corporations the ability to challenge laws passed in the United States that could negatively impact their “expected future profits.” Take, for example, Phillip Morris, a company using this process to sue Australia and Uruguay for passing legislation designed to prevent children in those countries from smoking. Or a French waste management firm suing Egypt for over $100 million for increasing the minimum wage and improving labor laws.

Virtually every major union and environmental organization in the United States is against the deal that Congress could vote on again tomorrow. Major religious groups are as well because they know what it could mean for some of the poorest people on the planet.

Not a lot of presidential candidates would use their campaigns to influence legislation being considered in Congress. Some candidates haven’t even expressed an opinion on this critical issue, which, frankly, I don’t really understand.

But as I’ve said before, this campaign is not about Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, or Jeb Bush -- it’s about the needs of the American people.

And we need a new approach to trade in this country — one that benefits working families and not just the CEOs of multinational corporations.

About Me

I am an Arizona native, born and raised in Phoenix, although I have lived for brief times in other places. I am what one would call a Centrist. I don't believe in radical left or right stances and refuse to let the low information, regressive, right wing people call me "liberal" since that would be left of reality based on opinion, and I believe in facts and research of evidence.